Effortless Action

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

– Lao Tzu

There’s a concept in Taoism, “wei wu wei”, which is often translated

as “action without action” or “effortless doing”. I prefer to think of it
more in the sense of “action that does not involve struggle or
excessive effort”.
This is an important concept, because effortless action is a way
to not only achieve focus in a world of chaos, but to be effective
without stress, to respond to any situation with economy of effort and
action, and to pursue our passions while beating procrastination.
Think for a moment of times when you’ve struggled to work,
and instead procrastinated by heading for your distractions — email,
social networks, blog reading, games, whatever your flavor might be.
This struggle is often a losing battle for most people. They fight
against it, but only win occassionally.
Effortless action is an easier way to find focus and beat
procrastination.

Be Like Water

An appropriate mental image is that of water, which seems naturally

effortless in its action. It isn’t necessarily still, nor is it passive, but it
flows naturally around obstacles and always gets to where it’s going.
This is effortless action. It uses gravity and the natural contours
of its landscape, instead of forcing things. Water can never be
anything but effortless, and yet it is quietly powerful.
Be like water. Flow, respond to the landscape, move around
obstacles, and be graceful in your movement.

Position Yourself Effortlessly Within The Moment

In “The Civility Solution”, academic P.M. Forni writes:

 “We must learn to position ourselves effortlessly
within each moment, rather than stumbling through
time. We can either escape from the moment or stay
with it as it unfolds and do something good with it.”

And this is exactly right. Are you trying to escape the moment,
fleeing from it and struggling against it? Or are you inhabiting the
moment effortlessly?
One way to do this is to stop yourself when you find yourself
struggling, and just pause. Be present, sensing your breath, and then
everything around you. See the situation with some objectivity,
instead of fleeing from it blindly. Carefully consider your options —
all of them. And then respond to the situation mindfully and with the
appropriate response — not an overreaction.
In this way, you respond flexibly, appropriately, and effortlessly.

Steps For Effortless Action

There is no step-by-step guide to learning effortless action, but here

are some things you might try:

Act because of passion. Not because you “should”, but because

you’re excited to do so. It will feel as if you’re going downhill,
because it’s what you want to do.

When you’re going uphill, change course. Whenever you find

yourself dreading something, procrastinating, forcing yourself and
hating it, stop and ask yourself why. There must be a reason — you’ll
never sustain any action for long if you hate doing it. Change course
to something you’re more excited about, and things will get easier.
You may end up getting to the same destination, but you’ll do it with
a different course and things will flow more naturally.
Don’t try to control what you can’t control. When we try to control
others, or obsessively control our surroundings, we are trying to
control things that aren’t in our control. This will inevitably end up in
failure, frustration, and conflict with others. Instead, accept that we
can’t control these things, and flow around the obstacles with a
minimum of effort.

Be in the moment. Be aware of the full situation, accept the

situation, and respond appropriately.

See the possibilities. When we have our minds set, and our vision set,
on one destination, we are often blind to other possibilities. We’ll
miss opportunities this way. Instead, see all the possible paths and
pick the one that will work best for you. That doesn’t mean to become
indecisive because there are so many choices — to be paralyzed by
choice — but instead to learn to move effortlessly among all the
possible paths instead of being stuck on one path. This gets easier
with practice, as you learn to trust your intuition.

Be flexible. When we are rigid, we will often break. Be like water,

flowing around obstacles rather than trying to push them out of your
way.

Find the pressure points. Sometimes, if you find the right spot,
achieving something takes very little effort. Hitting a baseball with
the sweet spot of the bat will cause it to go much further with less
effort. Finding these spots of maximum effectiveness and minimum
effort takes mindful effort, which is why effortless action isn’t
mindless action.

Do less and less, with less and less effort. Effortless action isn’t
something that is achieved overnight. In fact, if you try too hard to
achieve it, you’ve defeated yourself already. Instead, when you find
yourself in a whirlwind of activity, and pushing hard, slow down,
relax, and do less. Eliminate some of your motions so that you’re
moving with economy. Push less, and flow more. Slowly learn to do
less, and then do less, finding ways of doing that require little action
but lots of effectiveness. Learn to let things unfold naturally instead of
pushing them to happen. Let people learn on their own instead of
controlling them. Set things up so they happen without you having to
steer everything. Slowly learn to use less effort, and then less than
that.

Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy. Another famous

quote by Lao Tzu, it’s timeless and wise. If you can manage the easy,
small things now, you’ll save yourself the time and effort of having to
do the difficult things later. This allows for more effortless action —
you work less to achieve the same results.

Focus A Simplicity Manifesto In The Age Of Distraction

Leo Babauta